Raging Wars
Disclaimer: Disney owns everything and I make no profit from this.
Chapter 6
Mission to Tatooine! With Jabba's son having been recovered by the Republic and treated by the best medics the GAR could offer, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Padawan Ahsoka Tano travel to the Chosen One's home world to deliver the Huttling to its father. Meanwhile, Darth Tyranus, having been notified of Ventress' failure, sets out to steal the child away and return it to Jabba himself in order to gain access to the Trade Routes in the Outer Rim…
Warning: For those who have not read my story "A Messed Up Destiny: Before the Dark Times", it is needed for context of what's going on here and for the other side stories I plan to write that will take place in the same universe. So I suggest you go read it or you'll be completely lost here.
Tatoo System, Tatooine, Anakin's point of view:
Flying over the sandy dunes of Tatooine on a gunship was far more preferable than walking across the desert by foot. As the LA-AT flew us to Jabba's palace with the –no longer feverish- Huttling, I glanced at Ahsoka, who was doing her best to not pace around, not that there was much room to pace around in on a gunship anyways.
Jango seemed restless, the idea of going back to Jabba's Palace making bad memories resurface. I knew he had once worked for Jabba, he was a Bounty Hunter after all, but I never blamed him for it since it was just a job to him. Besides, I knew better than to blame him for his actions, especially since he –and his son, from the few times Boba had gone on missions for the Empire- seemed to be one of –if not the most- honorable Hunter of his batch.
Rex, who had come with us despite my protests, wanted to do something to calm Snips down -the Force told me as much-, but he was afraid of overstepping his bounds, so he stood still, hanging on to the railing without a word.
As for myself, I had been reaching out into the Force most of the time, speaking with either Obi Wan or Qui Gon while searching for Dooku's presence. Obi Wan was still in Jabba's Palace, using his immense self-control to stop himself from whipping out his Lightsaber and putting an end to the misery of every slave inside, while Dooku seemed to radiate anxiety, both from his impending failure and my arrival on the planet.
"Anakin. I sense that this is a crucial moment. Be warned, what you do here will affect more than just the people involved. It will have an impact on the Galaxy as a whole.", Qui Gon's voice rang through my head, warning me to be careful of what I do.
"Is this about Dooku?", I asked him, wanting to know more about what was going on.
"Yes, Padawan. It is. I sense that he has much fear of you, but is determined to see you fail. He still firmly believes that Lord Sidious is the one who will 'heal' the Galaxy and I think it is time to show him that he is wrong, or to at least plant the seeds of doubt into his mind, as a Sith might say.", Qui Gon replied, clearly joking about manipulating Dooku, since he would never actually do that.
"I assume that you're joking?", I questioned, wanting to be sure.
Qui Gon let out a laugh. "Of course I am!", he confirmed. "Though I suppose that Revan's jokes aren't very funny when I do them…", he then muttered quietly, or as quietly as one can in the Force.
I ignored the comment and made a mental note to stop Qui Gon from reciting any more of Revan's jokes in the future before clearing my throat, to break the –mental- silence. "Should I do or say anything specific?", I asked him, seeking guidance for my inevitable encounter with the Count.
"Anakin, I cannot advise you on this. My emotions towards Dooku cloud my judgment, and I fear that I will lead you astray.", Qui Gon said, but his voice was barely louder than a whisper.
I let out a sigh, realizing that I'd have to do this on my own. "I understand your position Master, and I won't push you. I shall deal with the Count myself, though your personal preference of not killing him will be taken under advisement.", I replied, resisting the urge to laugh at my own tone. There would be time for jokes later, but now…I had a Sith Lord to find.
"Skywalker.", Jango said, getting my attention. "We've got incoming. A land speeder is approaching at high speed, from the direction of Jabba's Palace.", he warned.
"Dooku…", I muttered, not realizing I had said it out loud.
Upon hearing the name, Rex snapped to attention. "Any orders sir?", he inquired.
"I'll deal with the Count myself. Jango and Ahsoka will deliver the kid to its father while you and Hawk return to the Resolute and wait for further instruction. I don't want either of you to get hurt.", I answered, but Rex saw it fit to protest.
"Sir, with all due respect, would it not be better if we also accompanied the Commander?", Rex questioned, understandably so.
"Lieutenant Hawk specializes in aerial combat, Rex. And you've basically assumed the position of my right hand." A position once held by Commander Appo, a part of my brain reminded me. "You are invaluable to the 501st. Besides, Ahsoka and Jango have it easy, considering the most they'll have to face is a few Magna Guards.", I explained to him, hoping that he wouldn't protest. Both Rex and –to my own surprise- Hawk had become good friends of mine in the last few months, along with Broadside and Appo, among others, and I had no intention of letting them anywhere near someone as despicable as Jabba.
Ahsoka tried to hide a frown, though I didn't quit understand why that was. Jango gave her a firm nod, as if assuring her about something, probably the mission.
Rex looked stunned at my words, as if he had never expected me to hold him in a high regard. "S-sir. I'm not sure what to say…", he mumbled.
"Then say nothing.", I told him. "Ahsoka could deliver the kid on her own if she had to, I'm just sending a bit of backup to make sure she's safe.", I added, pretending not to notice when Snips visibly relaxed, as if relieved or reassured about my belief in her capabilities. I'd have to talk with her about it later, but I decided to let it be for now, preferring to focus on the task at hand.
"General, hostile speeder right below us! It's Count Dooku!", Hawk's voice came from the cockpit.
Channeling a little bit of Vader –and the Dark Side- I took a breath, steadying my mind to not lose myself before answering the pilot. "I'll deal with him myself. You focus on dropping Snips and Jango off!", I shouted before calling my lightsaber to hand and jumping off the side of the ship and onto the harsh desert below.
In fact, I barely heard Jango questioned whether or not he was the only one hearing the robotic breathing every time I 'got pissed', in his own words. I made a mental note to speak with him later before turning my attention to Dooku, who had stopped his speeder just inches away from where I had landed, nearly running me over –not that I cared-.
"Young Skywalker.", Dooku greeted politely, though I could sense he was trying to put himself at ease, not having anticipated me deviating from the mission to –in his mind- come and kill him.
"Count Dooku.", I said, giving the man a small bow of respect. I would have quipped something at him, but I sensed Revan nudging me through the Force, curious as to why I had bowed to the man.
"He may be the enemy, but he still has my respect. In all his life he did nothing else but help people and even went against the Jedi Council when he thought they were wrong. Dooku also happens to be a skilled duelist and a cunning tactician. Besides, if what Qui Gon has told us is true, he had noble, selfless reasons for joining Sidious, which is more than I can say for myself.", I explained to Revan, who sent the mental equivalent of a shrug my way before retreating into the Force to watch the duel unfold.
"Ah. I see Master Kenobi has managed to teach you some manners.", Dooku commented, clearly pleased. "Though if I had things my way, you would have addressed me as Master.", he added, trying to rile me up.
I smiled at him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing me angry, something that he shouldn't want either, but alas, people can be stupid sometimes. "Still hiding behind your little taunts I see. Are they meant to compensate for a lack of skill, Count?", I asked, mocking him.
Unfortunately for him, Dooku wasn't used to being on the receiving end of such taunts and fell for the bait, calling his saber to his hand and igniting it, assuming his usual Form II stance. "You underestimate me if you think I'll be losing this battle.", he said, his tone practically oozing with the same elegance he carried himself with in his every day life.
Seeing the perfect opportunity to sneak a Vader quote into the conversation, I replied with the proper amount of sass, which was sure to make Obi Wan proud when I told him. "You would be wise to surrender…", I told him, doing my best to mimic the tone I had used on the Kestis kid on Nur.
"You do not know the power of the Dark Side!", Dooku snapped at me, jabbing at my side, only to find his blade perfectly parried barely a moment later.
"I know more than you ever will.", I told him honestly, before dodging backwards and assuming a Form II stance, wanting to mock him by using his own Form against him, like he had done to many Jedi of his time.
Dooku took note of the action, showed surprise for barely a moment, and then resumed his assault. Each one of his attacks was parried perfectly, giving him the bare minimum time to block the counter, which was –of course- done on purpose. The Count would lose control of his anger soon, giving me the chance to defeat him without revealing my true skills with the blade.
Seeing that regular attacks were of no use, Dooku attempted to use the Force in order to push me back, but he barely managed to make the backside of my robes float in the air for a moment before coming back down.
Enraged, the Count sent a barrage of Force Lighting my way, only for said Lightning to be absorbed into my left hand while I simply stood there, smirking at him. Using the absorbed energy, I channeled it into a massive Force Push that knocked the old man off his feet and sent him tumbling on the sand while his saber flew into my outstretched hand, rendering him defenseless.
Dooku tried to get up, and managed to do so on wobbling legs. In a last –desperate- attempt to at least do something, he pulled his saber from my hand and practically threw himself at me with all his weight, probably expecting me to block the clumsy strike.
His eyes conveyed nothing else but shock as the blade of Lightsaber was completely absorbed into my chest, leaving me unharmed. The blade fell out of his trembling hands and I caught it with the Force, not wanting the Count to have to clean it later since I knew that sand would get absolutely everywhere, like the coarse, rough and irritating substance it was.
Dooku's whole body started shaking and my first instinct was to help him -since that's Padme would done-, but I was cautious. One quick scan at his Force Presence conveyed that he was in no mental shape to so much as think clearly, much less fight.
Evidently, Dooku wasn't exactly a threat to begin with. Sure, he was formidable when wielding the Dark Side and he was the Master of the Blade and one of the best practitioners of Form II in recent Jedi History, but he was someone I had faced time and time again during the Clone Wars, so I was quite familiar with his fighting style, not to mention that he was literally nowhere close to matching me in the Force, so I decided it was worth the risk.
Taking Dooku by the arm as if he was a harmless old man, I helped him sit down on his speeder and waited for him to snap out of the catatonic state he was in. While waiting, I decided to check in with Jango and Ahsoka, and found out that they were in the middle of a skirmish with a trio of Magna Guards, the same droids Ahsoka had faced in the original timeline. Fortunately for the pair, Magna Guards had little way to defend themselves when attacked with flamethrowers or blaster pistols, proved by the fact that Jango had absolutely decimated two of his three opponents before even noticing that I had called him.
The Bounty Hunter picked up his com. unit, motioning for Ahsoka to take care of the remaining droid while we talked. "General.", he greeted in a mocking tone, though I knew it was all for fun, so I ignored it.
"Commander Fett.", I addressed him, as serious as possible. Jango seemed puzzled by this, but I paid his reaction little mind. "Has the Huttling been delivered to it's father?", I inquired.
"We're close. These were the last of them.", he replied as I spotted Ahsoka beheading the Magna Guard in the background of the call.
"Tell her to dodge the next strike. Those things still work without their head.", I warned, but Jango didn't do anything to notify Ahsoka of this fact, instead grabbing one of his pistols and shooting in the space behind her, hitting the machine straight in the chest as Ahsoka looked above her shoulder, seemingly shaken by the move.
"You're welcome kid. Now let's get this over with.", Jango commented absently, expressing confusion by a tilt of the helmet when he saw Dooku, who was sitting behind me.
"Heat stroke.", I lied. "He's no use to us dead." Fett nodded an affirmative at this, and after seeing that I had nothing else to say, he quickly ended the call and resumed his mission.
Placing the com. back on my belt, I turned to face Dooku, who felt a little more centered in the Force. The aged man lifted his head to look me in the eye and muttered a single word, just loud enough for me to hear.
"How…", Dooku asked, the inquiry barely audible.
"The Light Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some Sith would consider to be…unfair.", I responded in my best impression of Sidious' voice. Dooku seemed to get the joke, because he let out a small chuckle before clearing his throat.
"Why am I not dead?", the Count inquired, as if he had expected to be killed, not that I wouldn't have ended him on Geonosis if Qui Gon hadn't stopped me.
"I have no reason to kill you, Count. Not when I think that you're simply misguided.", I answered him honestly.
Dooku scoffed. "So you really think that I'll come back to the Republic?"
"Force no!", I replied, as if exasperated. "I intend no such thing."
"Good…though I don't suppose the Council have told that the Republic is under the control of a Sith Lord?", he asked, his tone betraying the fact that he was scheming, assuming of course that the gesture as a whole didn't betray his intentions.
I wasn't going to fall for the bait, but this was an opening, an opportunity to warn Dooku of what was to come. "I've seen what Sidious' Empire will do to the Galaxy. It will become everything you've sworn to destroy. But it's not too late to do the right thing, Count. You may have left the Order, but I know you're still a Jedi at heart. If you truly want what's best for the Galaxy, then make the right choice.", I told him, inserting as much sympathy and kindness into my voice as I could muster.
After all, if I –the Darth Vader- could turn away from the Dark Side and become a Jedi again, then perhaps Dooku could as well. Revan had done it. So had Bastila and the Exile. Therefore, there was no reason to believe that the Dark Side would dominate Dooku's destiny if it failed to dominate the ones of those who came before and after him. That was what Qui Gon had told me months ago, back when the War had first started, and now, looking upon Dooku, rendered defenseless and with no yellow in his eyes, I was starting to believe it too.
"Besides…", Revan mused inside my head. "…it wouldn't be the first time Yoda was wrong, would it?", he questioned, as if trying to get me to truly believe that it could be done.
"You were there when I promised Qui Gon I'd at least try.", I told him.
"There is no try, Anakin.", Qui Gon interjected. "If one merely tries something, then that means they don't have complete confidence in their capabilities. One must do or do not, for if they do not truly believe they can succeed, they will surely fail."
"Skywalker. I asked you a question and expect an answer.", Dooku said, pulling me out of my thoughts.
I felt a bit embarrassed, though my main concern was to ensure than I wouldn't space out again in times like these, fore Dooku could have simply killed me, seeing as I wasn't even trying to defend myself with Tutaminis, or even a simple Force Barrier.
"Well? What have you seen?", Dooku demanded suddenly, reverting back to his Sith demeanor.
I let out a sigh, mentally preparing myself to revile some of my days under the Emperor's tutelage, before answering the Count with as much brutal honesty as I could.
"Darth Sidious took control of the Republic and the GAR, forcing the Clones to strike us down against their will. The Jedi in the Temple were slaughtered by his new apprentice, the man that had beheaded you a mere fortnight before on Sidious' orders. From what I can gather, he had you two duel and promised to intervene if you were about to lose, but never did so, instead demanding your death. He betrayed you and erased your legacy along with the history of the Jedi.
The Galaxy suffered under his rule, with oppressive rules restricting the freedom of the people. The non-humans you claim are suffering under the Republic were all but hunted down by the Emperor, with the enslavement of about half of Ryloth and Kashyyyk being completely ignored while corruption thrived in the Senate Chambers.
Any semblance of Democracy was lost as Sidious sent his assassins to kill anyone who so much as disagreed with the extreme measures taken by the Emperor, and the Outer Rim was even more heavily exploited, since no had to pretend to care about the people residing there as the Clones –millions of men bred to fight and die in a staged War- became nothing more than mindless drones, which is why I'm so desperate to stop Sidious, no matter the cost."
Dooku seemed shocked by my words and visibly recoiled away from me, utterly stunned. "My legacy…Qui Gon…was it really all for nothing?", he asked, feelings of distress and mental devastation surrounding his presence in the Force.
"I was shown an announcement that claimed I had died defending the younglings in the Temple, that I had been the last Jedi standing when the Sith laid siege on it. Your legacy ended with my own Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, having been betrayed and murdered by those she considered allies, as you were. As we all were.", I told him, barely keeping my voice from cracking.
The Count said nothing as I used the Force to –gently- pick him off the speeder so I could use it to get to Ahsoka and Jango, assuming they where they were supposed to be and hadn't run into any more trouble. "I'm sorry…", Dooku muttered, almost to himself. I pretended not to hear as I climbed on the speeder and rode away, leaving the aged Sith alone in the desert.
As I rode across the desert under the twin suns and in the harsh heart, I could sense Qui Gon smiling at me, as if telling me that we had a chance, that Dooku could be saved. I grinned to myself at the thought, inexplicably happy at the thought that someone would be saved from the Darkness. Or rather, the Force itself was happy, and I was just feeling the same things it did. Suddenly, and only for a moment, an image of Count Dooku in Jedi Robes appeared before me, accompanied by the mental message of 'you can make this happen'. Gazing at Qui Gon's form, which had materialized atop a nearby Cliffside, we exchanged a smile as the speeder continued to ride the desert sands of Tatooine, taking me one step closer to my destiny.
I really hope you guys enjoyed the final chapter of Raging Wars! This story was a lot of fun to write, since it details the things done in between Episodes 1 and 2 of the main Trilogy and puts certain people in their proper places so their respective storylines can advance.
Anakin is growing both in the Force and as a person, Obi Wan is at ease with his brother and himself, Ahsoka has begun her apprenticeship under Anakin, Rex has shown his General that he can trust others with his problems and Dooku has been told the horrible truth of what the Dark Path will lead him to.
Anakin's powers have been explored in Controlling the Fire and will be addressed once more in Shadows of the Sith, Obi Wan's bond with his brother will be properly explored in The Horrors of Jabiim, Ahsoka has learned the basics about her Master's situation and Jango has proven himself a friend and ally, while Dooku's story continues in the upcoming one shot: In the Grip of a Tyrant.
Now…I feel like there are things to say about this chapter, so yall know what time it is!
First things first, Anakin's mindset in this chapter and in general. We can clearly see that he is not as unforgiving as Vader once was, considering he is willing to look beyond Jango's past and evaluate him because of who he is, not what he's done. He has certainly grown and has begun to embody Qui Gon's and Padme's ideas, as seen in the scenes with Dooku. Anakin is also able to self-criticize, considering he admits that Dooku had more noble reasons to join Palpatine than himself to Revan.
Can I just say that if nothing else, at least Qui Gon's sense of humor survived the stabbing? In all seriousness though, he warns Anakin of a crucial moment that is to come, meaning the impending duel with Dooku. What Anakin does were does indeed affect the fates of every individual in the Galaxy, since if he succeeds in turning Dooku against Palpatine things will change, but if he fails or even kills him, things will still be different. Qui Gon never says in what way people will be affected, he only states that they will be.
Anakin is a lot more understanding than he was in the original timeline, mostly because he has experience with making bad calls due to attachment. He knows that Qui Gon doesn't want to risk something happening to him because of certain advice, and tells the Force Ghost that he would take his 'personal preference', meaning what Qui Gon actually wanted to tell him to do under advisement, which is just Anakin subtly assuring the Jedi Master that he won't kill Dooku.
Rex being Anakin 'right hand' is going to be important later on, but you can bet the Clone is at the edge of tears at his General's words. It's no secret in the 501st that Jango and Rex compete all the time, so for Anakin to disregard Jango –not that the man cares- and 'promote' Rex to his right hand is incredibly important to the Captain, though that will be heavily addressed later.
I tried, nay, did keep the pre-fight banter between Anakin and Dooku as close to what I actually thought they would say as I could, and I hope it was satisfactory, but I couldn't help myself. I just had a Fallen Order reference in there for good measure.
The scenes between Anakin and Dooku –with the exception of the banter- are touched upon quite heavily during the chapter itself, so I don't feel like I need to explain. Besides, there are some moments that are up to –some- interpretation, so I'll leave them as they are.
Next time (meaning next story): As the Clone Wars continue to rage across the galaxy Count Dooku begins to wonder if he's made the right choice when he is confronted by his long-dead Padawan, Qui Gon Jinn.
So yeah, we're going to see a lot of Dooku and Qui Gon interacting, all from Dooku's point of view. I've tried my hand at it before, but I don't think I can really do the character justice because of how awesome he is, though I promise to do my best.
That's all for now guys! I'll see you in the next story (unless I catch you in the review section), but until then, May the Force be with you!